Some like it light

More service body manufacturers are jumping in the “lightweighting” trend, including Knapheide, which debuted its new aluminum body at the 2018 Work Truck Show in Indianapolis this March. Other companies, like BrandFX and Johnson Truck Bodies displayed trucks built with composites, highlighting their lighter profiles. Reading Truck Body displayed its own aluminum concept model.

Omar B. Sandlin II, vice president of business development for the U.S. operations of Drive Products, a Canadian truck equipment supplier, said major vehicle builders like Ford, General Motors and others are now even looking beyond lightweight materials for the body and figuring out how to design everything from the truck cab to the transmission to lessen the load.

“Green technology, lightweighting, is here to stay and going to continue to improve and grow,” he said. “At the end of the day, it provides safety — but also a massive amount of financial payback.”

Sandlin, who gave a presentation on lightweighting strategies at this year’s Work Truck Show, said outfitting a truck with nontraditional materials does come with a bigger upfront cost.

Cost gap shrinking

A service body built with aluminum, rather than steel, is likely to cost 20 to 25 percent more. But that gap has been declining; Sandlin said the markup used to be closer to 45 to 50 percent. And once the truck is in use, the more expensive materials start paying for themselves in the form of savings on fuel and maintenance – and the potential for increased capacity.

Sandlin said lightweight trucks just don’t wear out as quickly.

“It’s (savings in) the total annual cost of maintenance — it’s not wearing out your tires, not wearing out your shocks,” he said.

And if the truck weighs less overall, some of its key components can look a little different, too.

As more fleets make the switch to lightweight materials, Sandlin said the thinking that aluminum won’t hold up as well as steel is disappearing. He points to service trucks used in the tree care industry, which need to hold up against heavy use.

“For chipper bodies in tree care, when they throw a giant stump in steel, it’s going to dent, same as aluminum,” he said. “The biggest difference is when it rains and there’s moisture, the steel body is going to rust, and you’re going to have to put labor into repairing that.”

No rust, less fuel

Aluminum, on the other hand, won’t have problems with rust. Sandlin said composite materials can also be good alternatives, though they make for bodies that can be tougher — or impossible — to repair if they are pierced or if there’s other serious damage.

For many fleets, the fuel savings of going lightweight is the most obvious difference. Among the numbers Sandlin has shared with attendees at the Work Truck show are those that show how lightweight materials can boost efficiency significantly over traditional steel: magnesium by 30 to 70 percent, carbon fiber composites by 50 to 70 percent and aluminum by 30 to 60 percent, among other options.

That boost to fuel efficiency also means fleets are reducing their carbon emissions. Though the Trump administration is working to reverse some of the Obama-era environmental regulations around emissions, Sandlin said it doesn’t seem to be dampening enthusiasm for lightweighting.

“I think there’s enormous momentum,” he said.

— Erin Golden

Erin Golden is a writer and regular contributor to STM. She is based in Minnesota.